San Stefanos Online ~ North West Corfu

This is the new name for the old Zest for Life JuiceBar.

For Newbies, it’s on the LHS as you head down to the beach just before the cross roads at San Stef travel.

The lady who runs this is from Avliotes and used to work in Sidari hotels. Her and her daughter are delightfully friendly.

We ate here during our rainy Tuesday lunchtime and were really pleased with how tasty her food was. In fact even topping it off with two beers before setting off on our walk to Magaloudes. We also used it for ‘beach baguettes’ one day and she made us our packed lunch for the journey home.

Give her a try this summer, it’s good see new local talent giving it a go.

Remembering it's 8 years since we were last here, we really believe that the beach is transformed.

It was always a highlight of the village, but it is much wider and tidier now. Also with 4 rows of upgraded loungers with deep beds including bottles of water, it really is excellent, and dare I say it, more modern. The 180 beach bar is also a terrific addition.

Bravo to all those behind the improvements, what a difference its made. It is lovely.

We had a great walk today along the coast to Afionas.

It took us around 2 hours, but that included a 45 minute stop for coffee and baklava in Arillas. Although it was really windy in San Stef it, it was much more sheltered in Afionas.

We had lunch in the Porto Timoni restaurant which had the most picturesque views. The deep blue and turquoise colours of Saint Georgios Bay were beautiful. From up high the windsurfers and paddle boarders seemed to be just floating and ebbing away gently in the hot sun.

As always, the walk home seemed quicker, but the refuelling stop in Akrotiri came at the right time.

For those interested, we left Nondas just before 11am and got back about 4.30pm. A great day out......no doubt our calf muscles will remember it tomorrow.

Yammas. 

Hi folks

SZ is a new ice cream parlour opened at the corner which takes you down to Athena Hotel. Run by Demitra (ex Zorbas, Havanna and Romanza) with help from her sister Soffia and mother Julia it also sells deserts (the cheesecake and choc soufflee are very light but wonderfully heavy on the calories!) In addition it does terrific smoothies, milkshakes as well as wine, beers and cocktails.

The girls are lovely, will fuss over your kids and make u feel like a family friend.

It's worth a pop in for a pre/post dinner or lunchtime indulgence.

Loftyscot
34degC
San Stef

Quick update folks for those flying out shortly....

Weather....absolutely scorchio, high 30s for last 8 days
Currency....115 euros after commission for 100 pound t/c
Set menus all range in the 8-9 Euro mark for 3 courses.
Airport taxi is 65 euro, 57 from Kapetanos if booked in advance

Greek night at Manthos was great fun - even had two old wrinklies frollicking au naturelle on the beach below us 

Spiros and Donna have changed beach pitch, now at the Waves end. Donna tells us the beach shack was washed away in the storms and is now RIP in Davy Jones' locker.

Beach is much narrower ar Havana end but still wide enough for the rows of brollies.

The Mistral lunch recommendation was spot on, thanks to whoever suggested that.

Thanks to Don for coconut fishcurry recommendation at Beachcomber, it was fantastic.

Hope you all find this helpful

LoftyScot live from the TB Hotel Internet. 39 deg C today...wowwwww!

ps Groucho night at Olgas tonight, rock on Tommy

We arrived home yesterday from our 2nd stay at Olga's and just had to post a note to offer info for any first timers going to SS shortly and to express thanks to all the regulars who kept us informed before we travelled earlier this month.

Our holiday was fantastic making the 3 of us v. happy that what was so good last year could be repeated again. Our 7 year old son had another terrific time.

We were amazed that all the restaurant staff at Zorba's, Little Prince, the ASPA supermarket owners, and Spiros and Donna on the loungers at the Havana steps remembered us from last year and to be honest we were a bit humbled at the reception we got.....

For the foodies amongst you, we can't see past Zorba's. We swore we would try more restaurants this year but Pavlos and his team won our hearts and tastebuds again 8 nights from 14. He is Mr Energy with his terrific dancing and we really hope he makes as much of a success with Mama Mia next door . Billy and Dimetria look after you very well....and look out for the family grandfather as he keeps an eye on Z's and The Little Prince. We were introduced to Mama who does all the cooking at closing one night and all I can say is she looked exhausted (5 hours on the stove!!) but absolutely proud that her son Pavlos was keeping the regulars returning.

The new places we did try were;
Nafsika which served wonderful tasty food, again the staff were terrific,
Mythica which for us was ok - lacked a little atmosphere,
Town Pizza - Ideal for that first night comfort meal following a long day travelling, and
Evinos for the sunset.
Warning on Evinos, notwithstanding a great menu it didn't have a lot on and although we enjoyed our food you would have been snookered if you did not like moussaka, meatballs or pasta. Not sure if this was a one-off but worth knowing. Still it served it's purpose and we got a stack of spectacular sun set photos.

The Little Prince continues to be great with Demetrius on top form as usual.

We managed to track down Yiannis, at his new cafe opposite Athens Bar and enjoyed a few gyros lunches with him. For those who don't know he has a rental on empty shop next door and if all goes according to plan he will be back with a bang next year - fingers crossed for him as he is a lovely gent.

However, however, however before we finish on the food........we put on a combined 19lbs between the two of us in a fortnight so it's back to the salads and light lunches shortly. But what the heck - as everybody knows there's always a price to pay for forcing yourself into 3 - coursers every night and insistng it be washed down with a local carafe and half-litre Mythos!!!!

One thing we did miss out on and it would be worth finding out about before you eat out at night is when the next Festival of Names is on at the back of the tennis court. We went along one night about 11.30 and were amazed at the numbers of spits on the go with the locals serving cheap food, soft drinks, wine and beers. It was like a local Gala/fete evening back home and would be good to go one night and take part in the festival. It really looked good but at that time of night we were stuffed and left after a short time.

At the beach - we pitched at the Havana end with Spiros and Donna making sure that everything was kept in good order in spite of few really windy days causing frequent relocation of the loungers. Again it must be the SS spirit -these guys have to be amongst the best at making sure your stay at the beach has everything you want. Their cheery nature, sense of fun and respect for you is first class and we sincerely hope the rent-masters don't mess them about next year.

Taxi's from and to the airport were €60 (pick up from the rank) on the way up and €40 on the way back - we shared on the return which was organised by Aristoula at Olga's. Both journeys were around 60 mins.

And finally,........ this has to be fitting testimony to Aristoula and her family at Olga's. When we arrived at the pool on our first morning (Sat 11th) virtually all the guests who were on the same fortnight as us last year were in the same loungers this year - talk about Groundhog Day!! Although we tend to keep ourselves to ourselves on holiday it was lovely to see the same faces as we knew that they had come back for the same reasons and that meant that you really trusted the people around you........important nowadays with a little one in tow.

We hope to return next year and if Yiannis is up and running I think a combination of him, Z's, the LP could help us break the the 20lb marker - let's hope so!

Thanks to all of you who keep posting and making newcomers like us informed.

best regards

ps. exchange rate was €1.14 in SS and working out at €112.5 for 100 sterling t/chqs after commission.